Thirty lawyers from Serbia will take part in the work of the Court for the crimes of the former KLA in the capacity of attorneys, writes Belgrade based daily Politika.
When the mandate is about to start before the Special Court, the lawyers do not know yet, and one of the selected lawyers and president of the Bar Association of Serbia, Viktor Gostiljac, told Politika daily that proceedings before the Special Court will be conducted against the defendants for crimes against humanity and war crimes as defined by international law.
“The Law on Specialized Councils also prescribes time jurisdiction, that is, the proceedings for the acts conducted between January 1, 1998 and December 31, 2000. However, it remains to be seen how many indictments will cover KLA crimes against Serbs in that regard that the law applies to all attempted and executed acts in the territory of our southern province, regardless of who the perpetrator is, “explains Gostiljac.
According to Politika daily it is unknown still whether during the representation will be taken into account that a lawyer from Serbia represents victims or it will be determined by the court according to the established mechanism.
“Victims can be represented by any lawyer who is registered in the list of victims’ representatives, but it is very likely that the court will take care of these circumstances. We have not had any consultation with the representatives of the Court for KLA crimes and many things are unknown to us, the representatives of the Court administration officially addressed the Serbian Bar Association and asked us to organize a meeting of court representatives with all the lawyers who applied to take part in these proceedings in our chamber. I believe that after that meeting we will have a much clearer picture of certain issues to which we have no answer right now,” Gostiljac told Politika.
Asked how he feels in the company of the lawyers of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, Luka Misetic, who is also on the list of defense attorneys of the Court, Gostiljac replies that he does not see that someone should have a problem because of this. “In the courtroom, our lawyers will represent the interests of their clients in a professional manner and to me, personally, any ethnic connotation is slipping away,” says Gostiljac.
